Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 447

For the love of money is the root of all evils,
and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith
and have pierced themselves with many pains.
But you, man of God, avoid all this.
Instead, pursue righteousness, devotion....

The Apostle Saint Paul speaks with experience when he warns Bishop Saint Timothy about those Christians whose faith is tainted with the love of money. Inevitably, they stray from the faith, for "You cannot love both God and mammon." 

If Jesus was the first to teach the contrariety of God and wealth, he was simply applying the ancient principle of monotheism; as the Law of Moses insisted, 

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall not have other gods beside me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;

you shall not bow down before them or serve them. 

For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their ancestors’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation;

but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

We have good evidence out of Egyptian archaeology that the Jews were not the first to believe in a single God who created and governs the universe. But only the descendants of Abraham would know of God's choice of them, their deliverance out of slavery by God's hand, and his abiding blessings to the thousandth generation of those who love him. 

Only they could give an adequate response to God's initiative. If kids in your neighborhood liked and admired your father, his preference was nonetheless on you. Only you and your siblings could love him as his true children. And only you could break his heart as severely.

While anyone might insist they "believe in God," they often mean that, in their opinion, monotheism makes sense. That opinion is infertile; it has no more effect than the idea that the Earth orbits the Sun; and the Sun, the Milky Way. It's a good theory to explain some things, and since everyone agrees with it, so do they. 

But that belief means nothing to a jealous God. Tepid devotion leaves a parent's heart cold. God's love demands more of us. If his demand seems unwarranted and unreasonable we have failed the God who shows love down to the thousandth generation for those who love him and keep his commandments. 

The god of wealth is far too small. That God who must have created the universe with all its billions and billions of galaxies and stars is far too small. 

As is the God who saved me, if I think of only my salvation. Many Americans have experienced deliverance from alcoholism, drug abuse, and innumerable obsessive compulsions. (I put myself in that story with my history of depression.) But they are still prey to that god who is Mammon until they claim their oneness with God's people and our ancestors as their own.  

Jews and Christians must find themselves in that assembly, and within its history -- which is why we treasure the Old and New Testaments. 

We should not stay away from our assembly, as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:25

However, those immersed in wealth are sorely tempted to shun the messy, tainted complexity of belonging to a crowd of people. Money assures independence from others. Wealthy people don't need others except, perhaps, to receive their generous munificence. 

For there is no salvation outside of the Church. Only a fool would suppose that God ought to love everyone regardless of their standing in the church, and opt out of the invitation. I, for one, will not tell our Just and Merciful God what he ought to do; or explain to God what justice and mercy mean. 

Jesus spoke realistically of the wealthy man's hopes for salvation: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle." Which is to say, "Don't bet on it." 

Rather, let us put ourselves and our wealth -- for everyone owns something -- at God's disposal, and let us be ready to surrender everything at a moment's notice.